We use cookies on our website to ensure that we give you the best user experience. The cookies we use are completely safe and don't contain any sensitive information. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you're happy to receive all cookies on our website. However, we've also provided further information should you wish to read more about our cookies or change your cookie settings.
Read about cookies

Staff at Hull College Group to walk out over job cuts

Staff at the Hull College Group will walk out on strike tomorrow (Wednesday) over plans to slash jobs.

Members of UCU at the college's Hull and Harrogate campuses will be on picket lines from 7am.

In Hull, striking staff at the Cannon Street and Queens Gardens sites will run a programme of teach-outs*, with activities ranging from Tai Chi and cookery to plumbing and motor vehicle checks.

The row centres on plans to cut 231 full-time equivalent posts across the college group's three campuses in Hull, Harrogate and Goole. UCU says the proposals would lead to around a third of the workforce being cut and fewer learning opportunities for local people. A further two days of strike action are planned for Thursday 17 and Friday 18 May.

UCU members recently delivered a damning vote of no confidence in chief executive officer Michelle Swithenbank. The union said her position was untenable after a failure to defend jobs at the college, as well as efforts to bully and then bribe staff not to attend a protest against the running of the college. It took the college four days to issue a statement backing the beleaguered head.

UCU regional official, Julie Kelley, said: 'Strike action is always a last resort, but staff at the Hull College Group feel they have been left with no alternative in order to defend jobs and educational opportunities.

'The proposed job cuts will be deeply damaging for current students and for the future availability of education for local people. To avoid further unnecessary disruption to students, the college needs to call an urgent halt to these proposals and work with UCU to explore better alternatives.'

In the recent strike ballot, 79% of the staff who voted at the college's three campuses in Hull, Harrogate and Goole backed strike action.